Interests

• arts
• concerts
• education
• crafts
• traveling
• teaching
• cultural immersion

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have always had a deep personal interest in education and understanding how are geopolitical and global economy produce and reinforce poverty in these countries. There is a small fair trade store in St. Louis I visited in March 2010 on a weekend trip to attend a concert. At the store I ended up buying a pin resembling a family of a father, mother, daughter, and son made of recycled aluminum can scraps. I wore it every once in awhile, and when I wasn't wearing the pin it remained on my jewelry stand. In June 2010 (three months later), I went on a cultural immersion and service learning trip through my university to Kenya. One day in Mombasa we toured a workshop called Bombolulu that empowers persons with physical and mental disabilities to make a living off of labor in arts and crafts sold abroad for fair wages. I couldn't be sure, but when I saw a table of workers making a pin very similar to the one I owned I was very curious to find out upon my return home if this is where my pin had been made. Indeed when I went home a few weeks later I checked the packaging, and the pin had been imported to the fair trade store in St Louis from Bombolulu. I had traveled abroad before this trip once to Europe, and I have done even more traveling since, but I think this is the moment that really opened my eyes to the interconnectedness of our world. I don't believe in coincidences, I believe everything in our lives does unfold in a particular order and reason, one that we cannot understand and is out of our control, but nonetheless it is not merely happen-stance. This was a beautiful moment in my life, and I try to embrace my experiences openly regardless of knowing how or why they occur.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Myanmar, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, United States